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Unreported: Hamas Is Preying on Grieving Families in Gaza and Charging Money for Burials
A Palestinian Hamas terrorist shakes hands with a child as they stand guard as people gather on the day of the handover of Israeli hostages, as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
The PA’s official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, exposed how Hamas even exacts a price for death in Gaza, with its “mafia groups” demanding as much as 1,300 shekels (nearly $400) in bribes to allow bodies to be buried in cemeteries. Or, in the words of one Gazan, Hamas tells the people that “death is on us, the grave is on you.”
Headline: “In Gaza: Death is free, burial is 1,300 shekels!”
“Media figure Hazem Abu Hamid exposed a new catastrophe in the Gaza Strip: Mafias are asking the relatives of Martyrs for bribes to bury their sons, reaching 1,300 [Israeli] shekels [just under $400 – ed.] for a Martyr’s burial…
In a video he published on his Facebook page, Abu Hamid said: ‘I was walking near a cemetery in Gaza City when a young person stopped me and told me that one of his relatives died as a Martyr in an Israeli bombing, and that during the burial ceremony, people (he didn’t mention their identity) [parentheses in source] asked them for a sum of 1,300 shekels to allow the burial of their son in the cemetery.’ …
Abu Hamid demanded to stop this inhumane exploitation of the residents’ grief, as some of them were unable to bury their relatives in cemeteries and were forced to bury them in the streets and cover the graves with tin sheets…
Activist Abu Humam Al-Ma’am Jundiyeh directly blamed the Hamas Movement because it collects 500 shekels in the south [of Gaza] and 900 shekels (just under $250 – ed.) in the north [of Gaza] from the Martyr’s family for a grave. He mockingly said that ‘Hamas raises this banner: Death is on us, the grave is on you.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 29, 2025]
Although the PA’s damning reports about Hamas are made for political purposes, these internal Palestinian revelations nevertheless demonstrate how Hamas is robbing, abusing, and exploiting its own people, and even PA officials and journalists are being forced to speak in code just to survive long enough to report it.
While Israel is libeled daily as “starving Gaza,” the Palestinian Authority (PA) itself has also revealed that Hamas is the one systematically depriving the population of food and aid, terrorizing local businesses and institutions, and preying on grieving families for profit:
The [PA] presidential office expressed its opposition and sharp condemnation of the acts of looting and theft that gangs are committing in the warehouses of humanitarian aid that is being presented to our people in the Gaza Strip, foremost among them the Hamas gangs.
It emphasized that our Palestinian people will not forgive these gangs for their shameful crimes, which they are committing at its difficult time specifically in the Gaza Strip. The presidential office emphasized that all these gangs and those affiliated with them are known to our people, and that they will be at the top of the blacklist to hold them accountable and punish them by law at the appropriate time. [emphasis added]
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 3, 2025]
This condemnation by the PA follows a report from a PA TV correspondent in Gaza who described how “organized and armed gangs” steal from “merchants and international [aid] institutions.”
The reporter in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza, which is still controlled by armed Hamas terrorists, could not specify that the gangs were from Hamas, but he made sure to hint it by saying these gangs are “in quotes, ‘robbers’ or ‘thugs’ in quotes.” He even accompanied it with a hand motion of quotes to stress the point.
Official PA TV reporter in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza: “There are organized and armed gangs whose members are masked. They roam the streets and places where there are many sales stalls, stores, and warehouses, regardless of who owns these warehouses. Whether they belong to merchants or international institutions, everything now serves as a target for what is now called in Gaza, in quotes, ‘robbers’ or ‘thugs’ in quotes.”
[Official PA TV, Reporters in the Field, May 4, 2025]
The matching language between the reporter in Gaza and the PA’s presidential office — with the use of terms such as “gangs,” “theft,” “robbers,” and “known to our people” coupled with an explicit accusation by the PA — seemingly confirms that the reporter is referring to Hamas gangs.
This is an official PA admission.
The PA is saying that Hamas is sabotaging the flow of aid. For context, in the 43 days of the most recent hostage release deal, Israel allowed in 25,200 aid trucks carrying 447,538 tons of aid and has allowed in close to 2 million tons of aid over the course of the war so far, according to a COGAT report.
Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Unreported: Hamas Is Preying on Grieving Families in Gaza and Charging Money for Burials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.